Diocese of the Northern Territory CHRIST CHURCH CATHEDRAL ABN 91 271 945 805 PO Box 181 Darwin NT 0801 Tel: (08) 8981 9099 Fax: (08) 8981 9039 email: [email protected]

Report to Annual Vestry – Lent 1, 2012 The Very Revd Jeremy Greaves - Dean

Below is a picture of the Choluteca Bridge in Honduras. It was taken right after Hurricane Mitch devastated the Caribbean in 1998. During the Hurricane 5,600 people died, 12,300 were injured and 8,600 disappeared. In addition to the loss of human life, 150 bridges were damaged or destroyed. The most modern of all the bridges, The Choluteca Bridge survived intact but suffered perhaps the greatest indignity, the river moved right out from under it leaving its builders wondering what to do next. This bridge was the only bridge left standing after the storm swept through. The Japanese company that built the bridge was so proud of it that this picture was put on their brochures to show the strength of their construction. There is only one problem. The storm had such force that it moved the river. A report in USA TODAY comments; “The graceful arches of the New Choluteca Bridge stand abandoned, a white concrete sculpture far from shore, linking nothing to nowhere. The Choluteca Bridge itself is perfect… except that it now straddles dry land. Mitch changed the course of the Choluteca River, and there is water where the access roads used to be ... Now, there is no solution… it is very difficult to change the current. [The river] is in a totally different place.'' The Choluteca Bridge is a much used metaphor for where we find ourselves as church at this point in the 21 st century.

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In his book, Missional Map-Making, Alan Roxburgh recounts a conversation he had with a church-leader in the United States. After twenty years of ministry the “executive minister… put it this way… ‘We’ve tried everything possible to make our church work in this community, but nothing we throw against our decline and loss sticks. We don’t know what to do anymore; our maps for how church should work no longer match the world we’ve tumbled into.’” The story is the same all over the place, clergy are still being trained for a model of church that doesn’t work anymore and most of the time we still believe that if we get the liturgy right, or the preaching, or the music, or the building people will come. And of course they do, but they are coming from other churches (or they’re coming on busses from the detention centres!). The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams challenges us to change our focus because he says, ‘God is not interested in getting more and more people into the institution of the church.’ Instead we need to look around us and discover what God is already up to in our neighbourhood and then as church we are to be to be sign, witness, and foretaste of God’s purposes in the world. The Spirit is calling the church on a journey outside of itself and its internal focus. “It is not the church of God that has a mission. It’s the God of mission that has a church.” He is saying God is at work in the world to redeem creation, and God invites us to participate in this mission… the church is to be God’s hands and feet in accomplishing God’s mission.” The tension for us at the Cathedral is to discover what the new maps look like in this landscape that has changed so dramatically since 1908 when the original Christ Church was built on land at the rough end of town, close to the docks, to china town and the red light district of Darwin. How do we draw new maps in a time when things continue to change around us and we struggle to know what we should hold onto and what we should let go? Over the last twelve months the Cathedral has dramatically reclaimed its place in the heart of Darwin. After a great deal of planning and hard work, Stage 1 of the Cathedral Restoration and Renovation is all but complete. We were very fortunate to have Steven Ehrlich from MKEA Architects as our architect and project manager. Steven’s good humour, obvious skill and attention to detail have been vital in ensuring the project has run (reasonably) smoothly and on budget. Many thanks also go to Mark Brustolin and the team from Brustolin Builders who worked above and beyond the scope of works to ensure that, after 30 years, we now have a water-tight Cathedral that looks loved and cared for: a place where we can have no qualms about inviting people to visit. An enormous amount of energy went in to raising the money required for the project. As well as generous grants from the Vincent Fairfax Family Foundation and the NT Government and contributions from many in the Cathedral congregation and wider community, there were three significant fundraising activities that helped get us over the line. The International Dinner Under the Stars was a wonderful evening of good food and entertainment, the success of which is primarily due to the hard work of Lavinia Mills and her team. The Cathedral Raffle was another success thanks to Vivienne Hayward and the generosity of those who donated prizes. The Art Auction at Framed Gallery also benefitted the building fund thanks to the generosity of Anne Phelan, gallery owner and friend of the Cathedral. You will be interested to know that once the final invoices are paid we will have close to a zero balance in the Building Fund: it’s almost tempting to believe in God’s providence! With the Cathedral almost finished, the builders have moved on to do some work on a temporary fix to the roof of the Cathedral Offices. It is hoped this work will give us at least two more wet seasons and thus some time for us to chart a way forward to a more permanent solution. We have recently been successful in applying for a grant to upgrade the sound system and do some preliminary acoustic work in the Cathedral. We have received extensive advice and hope to begin work soon to install new speakers, a new amplification system and a more flexible system of microphones. In the meantime the restoration and renovation of the Cathedral has renewed interest in the building as a venue for community events and activities as well as being one of Darwin’s most beautiful places to be married. After a year when, for much of the time, the Cathedral was covered in scaffolding there has been an increase in enquiries about weddings and we have already seen a number of very large and significant funerals held under the new fans.

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Our engagement with the wider community continued last year with our on-going partnership with the Darwin Festival. During the Festival we hosted a wonderful exhibition by Darwin photographer Glenn Campbell as well as making available the Harbour Room as rehearsal space and a significant part of our land for ‘back of house’ functions such as dressing rooms, rubbish collection and equipment storage. The Cathedral precinct remains a large focus for this year’s Festival and I will soon meet with organisers to discuss our involvement once again. Whilst quieter in 2011, the Cathedral Seminar programme continued over the past 12 months with visits from Val Webb, Rabbi Aviva Kipen, Alan Cadwallader, Steven Ogden and Greg Jenks. A highlight was definitely the “Taste of Jewish Spirituality” with Rabbi Kipen. Around 70 people enjoyed dinner under the frangipani tree, prepared by Alex Ehrlich and helpers and with commentary and song from the Rabbi. Those who attended were challenged in their thinking and there was much to learn. Equally challenging were the presentations from our other guests during the year. Each one helped us broaden our thinking and invited us into new ways of understanding our faith and our scriptures. There are four seminars now confirmed for 2012 and in response to feedback I am working with presenters to find ways of making the seminars more accessible for those with busy weekends and other responsibilities on a Saturday. While in the past our seminars have all been all-day events on a Saturday, this year we will try some other times and days when not restricted by airline schedules and costs. When Rob Whalley comes in August to talk about Thomas Merton and the Buddha there will be a Friday evening session as well as Saturday and possibly Sunday. When Eric Elnes comes in October we will most likely gather on a Monday evening. My hope, as always, is that people will take these opportunities to learn, discuss and ask questions so that together we can grow in our understanding of our faith and our tradition so that we can better draw the maps we need for the future. Mostly the seminars are organised around speakers who are visiting Australia or those I know who are happy to visit the NT. I am always happy to hear suggestions from people about what sort of material they would like to explore and to find suitable people to come and lead us in our thinking about particular things. This year our thinking has continued to be challenged as we wonder about how (and perhaps if) we are able to offer hospitality to two very different groups we see week by week at the Cathedral. Much discussion over the years has centred on how we respond to the large number of itinerant (mainly indigenous) people who both sleep in the Cathedral precinct and join us for worship and for morning tea on Sundays. Over the past year, Parish Council has continued these discussions and after much deliberation decided that in order to be able to better offer hospitality to all, we need to find a way of separating out the ‘soup kitchen’ part of morning tea and find other ways and opportunities for feeding those who are hungry. With up to fifty people from the Detention Centres joining us, larger than ‘normal’ numbers of people also impact our morning tea time and I know there are people who no longer join us for morning tea because there are simply too many people and it is too noisy in the Harbour Room. Morning tea, that traditional time for fellowship and hospitality to visitors, is simply too chaotic for some and parish council has struggled with what might be done so that everyone is welcomed better. This will no doubt be an ongoing process during this year. The people from the detention centre also impact the way we worship together. Each week up to 70 people come on the busses to join us for worship. While we have worked hard to welcome these people by printing readings and other parts of the service in Farsi and by regular visits to the detention centres, their presence amongst us brings many challenges. These people come to the Cathedral for many reasons: there are Iranian Christians keen to worship with other Christians, there are people of no real religion who are seeking connection with a faith that might help them make sense of all that has happened to them, there are Muslims curious about Christianity, there are those who think coming to church (and perhaps being baptised) will look good on their Visa applications, there are those who simply want an outing from the detention centre and there are those who see it as an opportunity to catch up with friends or family from other centres. Then there is the complexity of cultural and linguistic difference and of dealing with people who have often suffered great trauma or hardship and who now exist in a state of great uncertainty. There is no doubt the presence of such a large group of new people significantly changes the dynamic of our worship together and while most people have been wonderfully welcoming there are many who have also been challenged by the issues such a group brings. 3

One issue is the feeling of being ‘swamped’ by the number of people coming from the detention centres. I have raised this with SERCO and told them that we are able to provide hospitality to up to 50 people on a Sunday morning and that more than that makes it difficult for us. The challenge for SERCO, in limiting the numbers, is that they have no easy way of ‘sorting’ those who are Christians or are genuinely interested in Christianity from everyone else: inevitably some who should be here miss out. Another issue, which flows from the first, is that of the noise made by a large number of people who have little understanding of the expectation for quiet during our Sunday morning service. There are those who talk through the whole service, either inside or just outside on the verandah, making it difficult for those who want or need a quiet space for their prayers. This is an area where the whole congregation has some responsibility. It is up to you to turn to those around you and ask them to be quiet. It is possible to do this gently and respectfully and is part of helping newcomers understand some more about how we gather for worship and prayer in our tradition. Children are also a shared responsibility in our worship together and while it is difficult to expect them to understand the need for quiet when so many adults are talking non-stop, parents and others have a responsibility to gently teach the children about the service and those parts that invite quiet attention to what is going on. It is not just parents however. There are ways that we can all engage the children at different times during our worship. Eye contact, a smile and a quiet “Shhh” is often all that’s needed. And if you learn the names of the children and ask them about their life outside of church you might begin to build a relationship with them that is about more than always asking them to “slow down, sit down, quiet down…” When they feel respected and included, children are much more likely to respond positively when we ask something of them. The parents of the Cathedral children take responsibility for the Children’s ministry time each week. This year we have reached a critical mass of children and will soon begin dividing the children into two groups for children’s ministry. For the younger children the Children’s Ministry time will continue to be as much a crèche as anything with simple stories and ‘cutting and pasting’ type activities. The older children will be engaged in more directed ‘Christian education’ with material that is more age-appropriate than the simple activities provided for the younger ones. Over the past few years we have built up a good collection of Children’s ministry materials and curricula and will continue to look for quality material that fits with the ethos of the Cathedral. With the addition of an extra children’s group, the roster for children’s ministry has had to expand. There are now 13 people taking turns at facilitating the children’s ministry which shows a wonderful willingness by the parents of the Cathedral children to spread the load. Recently Parish Council began the exercise of listing all the things that happen in and around the Cathedral each week from unlocking the building each day and tidying the grounds through to choosing the hymns and ordering the toilet paper. (This list is attached) The next step was to list alongside each job, the name of the person responsible for doing it. It was an instructive exercise as the same few names appeared over and over and for parish council the question arose about how we engage more people to take an active role in the life of the Cathedral outside of their hour on Sunday mornings. This is not a new questions and we are all familiar with the 80:20 rule that says, “In any organisation 80% of the work is done by 20% of the people” (It is also true for us that 80% of our offertory comes from 20% (or less) of the people.) However, I am not sure how many of you know you are paying me to mow lawns, trim trees, collect rubbish, do security patrols, unblock gutters, photocopy pew sheets and mop floors, among the many other things I was never trained for at theological college. When Clyde Wood was Dean of this Cathedral in the 1970s there was a rule that no one person could have more than one job around the place. Times have changed since then and peoples’ lives are very different, but the principle remains true. The church is meant to be a foretaste of the Kingdom and yet for some, weighed down with so many jobs to keep the show on the road, it is far from a joy: much more of a burden. I invite you to have a close look at the list of “Who does what?” and to think about where your name might appear in future. Each week in our worship we proclaim, “We are the body of Christ”. If this is something we believe and if we are to do more than pay lip-service to it, it requires that we take our place and play our part in this wonderfully complex, often chaotic and always unpredictable body.

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It was very encouraging recently to receive well over thirty responses to our invitation to give feedback about Sunday mornings at the Cathedral: a similar exercise four years ago produced less than a dozen responses. Almost all of the feedback was constructive and helpful and I intend to be able to take on board many of the comments and suggestions as I plan the liturgy and worship for the coming year. Many of the comments were very helpful reminders to me of the importance of reflecting on what we do and why. I was disappointed however that some of the comments related to things that have been happening in particular ways for most of my time here and reflected an unwillingness or inability to approach me directly about concerns. The responses to the questionnaire have now been collated and are available with this report. One thing to come out of the feedback was a desire for some more attention to be paid to our music and the choice of hymns. There are many gifted singers and musicians within the Cathedral congregation and I have recently called for those who are interested to form a small group that might help lead our singing and help us, when necessary, to learn new tunes. The group may also learn pieces that might be sung at different times during our worship. If you are interested in being part of this group please speak to Ken or to Digby. I have continued to work to build partnerships with other community groups and organisations around Darwin and the success of this is partly seen in the number of groups that use the Cathedral facilities. There are a number of groups who regularly meet at the Cathedral: Narcotics Anonymous, AA and Al-Anon, a prostate cancer support group and various other groups who use the Harbour Room from time to time. Once again we hosted the annual St John Ambulance Service, provided space for Anglicare meetings and on February 27 will host a visit by Robert Fitzgerald. I have good working relationships with Darwin City Council, Brown’s Mart and the Darwin Theatre Group and will continue to find ways of strengthening these ties. During 2011 we hosted “Walk About Talk About”, an important event that was part of the Supreme Court’s centenary celebrations. In our ‘sacred space’ Aboriginal people had the opportunity to voice their concerns about and experiences of the justice system. It was a powerful event and enabled a number of people to re-connect with the Cathedral and others to experience us as a place of welcome for the first time. Alongside these things we continue to welcome people into the Cathedral for Sunday services, for weddings, funerals and other pastoral services. These are all important opportunities to connect with people we may not see at other times. Whether people come for services or as tourists, the Cathedral is seen by all as a place of welcome and hospitality. The comments over and over in the visitors’ book speak of welcome, of beauty and of peace: all things that continue to draw people in. As well as connecting with the wider community, the Cathedral maintains strong ties with the Diocese. Once again we hosted the opening of the Diocesan Synod with a meal and a service of Prayer at the End of the Day and we continue to provide meeting space for Diocesan Council and other Diocesan groups. In my role as Administrator I am a member of Diocesan Council, meet regularly with the Bishop and the staff of Diocesan Office, and take on extra duties when the Bishop is away from the Diocese. Our web presence continues to grow and our website is increasingly the first point of contact for people wishing to join us for worship or to organise a wedding or baptism. I work hard to continually update the website to keep the information relevant and accurate and always welcome feedback about how we can make it easier to use. Currently there is some work to be done to update information about the restoration and renovation work and I am hoping that we will soon have some good photos of the finished building for our website and for use on postcards, brochures and other publications. Our email newsletter now goes out to nearly 300 people and our Facebook page now has 122 people who ‘like’ it. I encourage you to check the website regularly and to ‘like’ us on Facebook as one more way of keeping in touch with what is happening at the Cathedral. Once again I have booked myself into a Retreat during the first week of August as an important part of both caring for myself and being strategic about making space for a time of prayer and reflection amongst the busyness of life at the Cathedral. Looking forward, I am beginning to think about how I might undertake some further study given the constraints of finances and staffing. I am currently exploring a couple of different scholarships that would assist. One thing shown by the recent Feedback Survey, which is well known by anyone who’s been in Darwin for any length of time, is the rapid turn-over of people in Darwin. Of the 35 responses to the questionnaire, 27 of them came from people who have been with us five years or less. An important issue for us is the disengagement of those people who have had a connection with the Cathedral for much longer than this and are still on our roll. How do we keep better 5

track not only of those coming in the front door, but those leaving quietly through the back? Some time ago I encouraged people to think about home groups as a way of improving the pastoral care of people within the Cathedral community. When I raised the possibility there was a complete lack of enthusiasm for the idea. I wonder if it is time to revisit this and will ask Parish Council to explore the idea further in the coming year. Once again this year we have welcomed new people into the Cathedral congregation who come with new ideas and gifts, new energy and fresh perspectives. I am pleased that a good number of people have ordered and wear Cathedral name badges: this is particularly helpful for those who are new and those who are visiting. My sense is that we need more opportunities to gather outside of Sunday morning to get to know each other. One of the first things for the new parish council to think about will be some social events for the coming year. Not everything we do has to be about fundraising or learning or worship: it is also important for us to find opportunities to simply be together for some fun. The work of a priest can be lonely at times, so it is a great joy to work as part of a team at the Cathedral. Over the past 12 months Pat Williams has continued to provide me with support, wisdom and gentle encouragement as well as continuing the pastoral work that ensures people are visited at home or in hospital or receive a friendly phone call when they haven’t been seen around the place for a few weeks. Pat also visits Tracy Lodge Aged Care, Pearl Aged Care, the prison, the hospital, the detention centre at the Airport and at Berrimah as well as any number of parishioners past and present who appreciate her presence. As well as the occasional wedding and various funerals, Pat also works tirelessly behind the scenes at the Cathedral compiling rosters, supervising exams, washing, cleaning and polishing things and taking care of many of the small details that are otherwise forgotten. Once again, I sincerely thank Pat for her greatly valued ministry in this place. There are others, also valued members of the ‘team’, who must be thanked (in no particular order). The Wardens and Parish Council have worked hard this last year as we have overseen the building and renovation work, grappling with finances, variations and roofing profiles. They have also provided much encouragement and support to me along with giving me the occasional gentle corrective. Vivienne Hayward has continued her work in the Cathedral office on Mondays and Tuesdays, making sure the phone gets answered, the roll is kept up to date, things are filed, ordered and followed up, and other duties too numerous to mention. Ann Lilley also assists in the office on Wednesdays preparing the pew sheet and Yvonne Forrest joins us on Thursdays to do folding and answer the phone, Colin Clay makes sure cheques are written and bills are paid and John Whyte keeps track of the Bookshop money, what needs posting and making sure the weekly collection gets to the bank. Of course there are others – those who take their turn reading, cleaning, writing intercessions, arranging flowers, counting money, providing morning tea or assisting with children’s ministry – and those who help unasked and unheralded with jobs small and large in the Cathedral or the grounds. My thanks also go to Brother James Macdonald for his continued commitment to the monthly Taizé service held in the Cathedral. Through his quiet leadership, this service has become firmly established in the monthly worship cycle with up to 30 people gathering on the evening of the first Sunday of the month for this quiet contemplative worship time. This year, Br James will continue with the Taizé service while he also assists with ministry at St Luke’s, Palmerston. It continues to be a joy to have Digby Barrow providing our music for three Sundays each month. His talent and his capacity to accommodate last minute changes and new tunes are a tremendous gift. In the coming year Digby will help establish the group of people who have offered to form a singing group to assist us in our worship. A great gift also is the work of the small music group that plays on the second Sunday of each month. Ang, Ken, Anne, Richard and Mike allow us to try newer worship music in a style very different from that which most parishioners have grown up with – it adds a richness to our cycle of worship that is much appreciated by many. This year we have maintained our strong connection with Royal Darwin Hospital. Keith Williams has continued his faithful ministry there on Sunday mornings and along with Morris Bastian, Pat Williams and Mike Nixon has ensured that there is a significant ministry presence amongst those who are in hospital or in the palliative care unit. While Pat has continued her visits to the prison, the presence of Brian Worth as chaplain to Berrimah Gaol, continues to strengthen our links with that institution.

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The Cathedral continues to play a significant role in the lives of many in Darwin through the pastoral services we offer. Last year the Cathedral staff conducted around 17 funerals, 17 weddings and 20 baptisms. These pastoral services are one more opportunity for us to give Darwin community a glimpse of the welcoming and inclusive faith that underpins our life together at Christ Church Cathedral. A key part of being able to maintain our presence in Darwin is in the way we manage the Cathedral finances. The Cathedral Council is once again proposing that the Vestry adopts a deficit budget. It is a budget prepared on the basis of some small increases in expenditure that reflect the real costs of running the Cathedral Parish. This is the fifth budget in a row that projects a deficit however the deficits are getting smaller and we continue to run a ‘tight ship’ with little, if any unnecessary expenditure. While I know that many have been affected by the difficult current financial climate, I encourage you to think about your giving to the work of the Cathedral and how long it is since you have adjusted that amount. We do not receive money from anywhere other than the collection plate and the small amount of rent we receive from the Harbour Room so the responsibility for paying our ways rests entirely with us. I would like to thank Martin Mills for his many hours of work as Treasurer during the past year. Once again Martin’s careful oversight of the Cathedral finances has meant that we have been able to pay our bills on time and that we have always had a clear picture of how things are going. I am particularly grateful for his management of the Building Appeal money, making sure we maximised interest and were able to pay the regular invoices from the builders and architects. I am very aware of the challenges that lie ahead – with the prospect of further fundraising and building work, juggling Diocesan and Cathedral roles (along with family responsibilities), and renewing my focus on pastoral care and christian education after a couple of years of fundraising and building – but as I begin my fifth year at the Cathedral I remain committed to being here and can think of nowhere else I’d rather be. I end this report with another picture. It is a picture of a turtle that managed to get caught in a plastic ring from the top of a milk bottle when it was very young. As a small turtle this wasn’t a problem. But unable to free itself, the turtle has grown and had its whole shape distorted by that small piece of plastic. As another metaphor for the church, the picture of the turtle invites us to reflect on those things we carry with us that distort the Gospel we share, that distort the sort of picture we give of the kingdom. What are those things for us? For the Cathedral? What are the things we might be best rid of as we move forward, as people of God in this place with good news to share. May God bless you with a happy and holy Easter season. Go gently,

The Very Revd Jeremy Greaves, Dean of Darwin, February 2012

A ship in a harbour is safe, but that’s not what a ship is built for. John A Shedd (So it is with faith.) 7